Speaking Water to Power: An Address to Ministers in Advance of COP15
31/08/09 20:38
Does the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change help anyone with
adaptation practice on the ground now? Can we
improve international adaptation policy?
Here, I was
asked to speak by the Stockholm International Water
Institute on behalf of the CSO/NGO
community to a group of minister/cabinent-level
officials involved with water and development
from six different countries. The "high-level
panel" occurred in late August 2009 during World
Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. By way of
backstory, I was pretty angry by the time I got
to talk. Most of the ministers had gone way over
their allotted 5 minutes, and it was clear they
weren't very interested in listening to me
anyway. I felt a bit of passion by the time the
discussion came around to me. Their statements
were deeply theoretical -- lacking in people and
places, removed from practical issues. They were
cold. I felt hot. 7.5 min. Below is the written text of
my presentation. Read
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The Watery Road to Copenhagen: Video Interviews from World Water Week
26/08/09 05:38
The water community
gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2009 to
discuss emerging and critical issues, and adapting
to climate change was easily one of the most
prominent topics discussed. Part of this prominence
comes from the international climate change
discussions that will occur in Copenhagen, Denmark,
in December 2009. Here, a group of rapporteurs was
asked by the World Water Week staff with SIWI
to interview conference
attendees about what they expect,
if anything, will
come out of the Copenhagen negotiations relevant
to water, their home countries, and their
families. 8.25 min. Read More...
The Watery Road to Copenhagen: Podcast with Three Groups
18/08/09 06:58
Lets take two
scenarios. On the 18th of December, the world
walks away with a new global deal on climate
change. The agreement includes progressive
emission targets for rich countries, nationally
appropriate mitigation strategies for developing
countries, financing for adaptation and a good
institutional framework. Alternatively, on the 18th
December the negotiations finally break down, no
deal is struck and world leaders walk away with
nothing. In our second breakfast roundtable
we tackle the implications of the UNFCCC
negotiations on international water management
policy. Listen in here.
Read More...
World Water Week: Climate & Water Interviews!
18/08/09 02:50
Stockholm’s World Water Week is one of the critical
meetings each year for discussing water issues. I’m
deeply involved this year personally both in
presenting and in collecting and synthesizing
information about coping with climate change in the
water sector. I’ve also been interviewed on some of
these issues -- available on the hosting
organization’s website. The first interviews here
is a personal profile of me and
WWF’s work on freshwater climate
adaptation. Read More...
One Talk, Two Heads: Bloviating on Climate Adaptation in Two Languages
12/08/09 12:05
This
video is a fair
representation of the overview adaptation
talk I've been giving for the past few months,
describing how climate adaptation differs from
much of the economic development and
conservation work up to now and how climate
adaptation has some special challenges and
opportunities for the water sector. Filmed on 3
August 2009 in Brasilia, DF, Brazil, this is a
long flick at 25 minutes, so brace yourself.
Although I appear visually a few times in the
stream, most of what you see are the
presentation slides filling the screen with me
(in English) and Martin Charles (my most
excellent Portuguese translator) delivering the
substance of the keynote talk to a live audience
of leading policy and resource management staff
from various government and civil society
groups. The event was billed as a climate
adaptation workshop, spanning two days at a
place called the LBV (very interesting in
itself) but hosted by WWF-Brazil. Filmed in
August 2009. Read
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Fixed video streaming! The Cerrado of Brazil
09/08/09 08:19
I’ve just returned
from a trip to Brazil, where most of my time was
spent talking in Brasilia with colleagues and
policymakers working on climate adaptation issues
from a freshwater perspective. While I will soon
post a video of a talk that I gave (and perhaps
some other video content), I’ve just finished
a short video
from I trip I made
to the beautiful savannah or cerrado
of interior Brazil
a few hundred kilometers from Brasilia. Hope you
enjoy! — JM Read
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